Hinges are well known in the art. For example, FIGS. 1 to 5 illustrate conventional hinge mechanisms.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, certain storage cabinets are sometimes provided with steel doors. These doors are often provided with hinges which are generally manufactured from sheets of steel which are punched and rolled, as represented in FIGS. 2 and 3.
These types of hinges are generally welded onto the door. Afterwards, a powder paint coating is applied for the finish. However, certain considerable problems result when using these types of hinge mechanisms.
For example, when the paint is applied to the hinges, a uniform coat of paint is formed and covers the surface of the rollers enabling the paint to find itself at the junction of these rollers. During the baking of the paint, a continuous and resistant film is formed over the junction of the rollers and thus prevents a proper functioning of the hinge. One must then force the hinge in order to break the paint, which sometimes causes an undesirable chipping of the paint.
Another problem arises from the fact that the doors can be quite heavy. In the case of large doors with small heights, the door has a tendency to be brought down which causes friction in the bottom of the door on the side opposite to the hinges. It is very difficult to correct this problem given that there are generally no adjustment mechanisms that are possible with these types of hinges.
Finally, depending on the accessories that are found on top or under the doors, this may cause important “looseness” or “play” which does not give a nice overall appearance to the cabinet. In the case of actual hinge systems, this play must be tolerated because there are generally no adjustment mechanisms that are possible with these actual hinges.
There exists presently on the market hinges that enable to mitigate some of these problems by installing them after the paint and carrying out the necessary adjustments to the door, such as illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5. However, these hinges are generally quite expensive, and are not sufficient robust for steel doors, and their mounting plates are generally poorly adapted and are also quite cumbersome.
Also known in the art are other disadvantageous and inconveniences associated with such conventional systems, namely the fact they cannot be used in a very easy, efficient and/or versatile manner for different applications.
Thus, it would be particularly useful to be able to provide an improved system or mechanism which, by virtue of its design and components, would be able to overcome or at least minimize some of the aforementioned drawbacks of the prior art associated with conventional systems.